Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer

For my birthday, I was given free reign of the bookstore. I came home with this lovely book, which I’d been dying to read. Wow. It was so good!

It’s a re-imagining of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a lesser-known fairy tale that I loved as a child. Told with nods to the original, as well as to classic fairy tale tropes (such as cruel stepmothers and the power of love) , it is nonetheless wholly its own.

Echo, the main character, was very well developed. She had her flaws, but she wasn’t annoying. Her inner strength and her loyalty made it easy to cheer for her. I also loved how beautifully described the settings were, and I am dying to visit the mirror library.

It’s a wonderful adventure, a journey full of magic and wonder, deftly told by a skilled weaver of words. This was the first book I’ve read by Joanna Ruth Meyer, but it most definitely will not be the last. If you enjoy beauty, enchantment, and a visit to the fairy tales that many children (myself included) grow up on, this book is one to read.